Archives: Integrative Institute of Nutrition

You wouldn’t believe what I’ve been working on… my own gluten free, vegan, no refined sugar muffins! I’m creating my own brand! YES you heard me… finally after all those thoughts of creating something on my own I’m actually making it happen. Let me introduce you to:

*** The Lovely You: Treat Yourself.

I am creating a logo as we speak and am getting very excited about this amazing new market that I’m about to dive into.

Of course there are some kinks to work out, like how to get my muffin papers to stop sticking to the delicious muffins! I’ll figure it out, although if anyone has any suggestions for me I’d greatly appreciate them. I may just decide to do away with the papers and simplify the whole situation!

My IIN (Integrative Institute of Nutrition) friends are hosting an event next Saturday, June 26 where I will be having one on one yoga alignment sessions as well as selling my newly branded Lovely You muffins. Please contact me for more information (my contact info is in the tab above). This event was incentive for me to make my brand happen and I am SUPER excited to make my debut.

Stay tuned for more info regarding The Lovely You and where you’ll be able to purchase them.

During my IIN (Integrative Institute of Nutrition) classes we had the pleasure of meeting David Wolfe, raw food guru. The most important lesson that I learned from him is that going raw may not be the best idea for everyone – but adding raw products into your existing daily diet can’t hurt at all.

He taught us how to make a “superfood smoothie,” which uses ingredients that I usually use on a daily basis but now I’ve learned how to also add in superfoods to pump it up.

Here is the recipe:

Handful of strawberries

Handful of blueberries

Handful of blackberries

Handful of raspberries

Coconut water – enough to cover the fruit and a little extra (too much is never a bad thing) one cup-full of coconut water contains more electrolytes than most sports drinks and more potassium than a banana**

1 tbls chia seeds– Chia is very rich in omega-3 fatty acids, even more so than flax seeds! Chia is rich in antioxidants, provide fiber as well as calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, manganese, copper, iron, molybdenum, niacin, and zinc. Chia is an AMAZING superfood!

½ tbls maca powder- Has been found to enhance fertility and sexual performance in both men and women.

½ tbls cacao powder – All chocolate is made from the cacao (cocoa) bean, and cacao beans in their natural, unprocessed, unadulterated state are rich in nutrients and beneficial to health. Cacao helps dilate bloods vessels, reduce blood clotting, improve circulation, help regulate heartbeat and blood pressure, lower LDL cholesterol, and reduce the risk of stroke and heart attacks. It is a feel good food and it may reduce the risk of certain cancers.

½ tbls camu camu powder – Camu camu fruits contain more vitamin C than any other plant in the world from 30 to 60 times more than an orange. It has astringent, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, emollient and nutritional properties, and also contains important levels of beta-carotene, calcium, iron, niacin, phosphorus, riboflavin and thiamin.

1 tbls raw honey – Honey is antiseptic, antibiotic, antifungal, and antibacterial — it never spoils and is best in it’s raw, unprocessed state.

1 tincture of cat’s claw – Is thought to have anti-inflammatory effects and has been used for rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis. It has also been used for high blood pressure, HIV, diverticulitis, gastritis, Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

Feel free to add in a green veggie if you want, sometimes I add in spinach or kale depending on what I have in the fridge.

If you have any serious health problems I suggest you do some more research on these superfoods to make sure they won’t effect you in a negative way – they are powerful and wonderful if you use them properly.

Dear blog friends, I am writing to let you know that my health coaching practice is officially open for business. I am ready to take on clients and am offering a special for the first 5 bloggers to contact me.

If you’re one of the first 5 you will receive a free health history with me! If you want to learn more about this please feel free to contact me through the contact section of the blog. Health histories can be conducted over the phone so don’t worry if you don’t live in NYC or if you have a busy life– it’s not a problem at all – we can work around anything!

I want to express how grateful I am for my loving, supportive family. This weekend at my Integrative Nutrition course I encountered more people then I had liked who said that their families thought of them as the “odd one” or the “weird one” in the family. I kept thinking to myself how grateful I was that my family never made me feel that way.

See, at the Integrative Institute of Nutrition we are learning how to heal ourselves through food. To many people this seems like a strange concept, but to all of us students it seems just right. We’ve been living and learning from our food and how it affects our bodies, but now we are learning WHY it affects us the way that it does.

We are also learning how important it is to have our “primary foods” in order, not meaning the literal food that we eat, but the relationships that we digest on a daily basis.

Personally, I’ve had a pretty great support system, sure it took some explaining of what I was doing for them to fully understand me, but they’ve always been on my side.

Last night I was truly blown away – let me explain the events that unfolded:

We celebrated my grandfathers 93rd birthday – I know, he’s an amazing man! – In any case, last week my mother explained that we would be going to my grandparents house in Fort Lee, NJ on Sunday and that there really wouldn’t be anything healthy that I would be able to eat, let alone everyone else. We decided that we would order from our favorite restaurant in NYC and bring it over to their house. First off, she didn’t have to do this! She could have said: “it’s one night and you can deal with eating what everyone else eats” but she didn’t! She understands the importance of eating healthy food on a daily basis and to that I am grateful!

This wasn’t the only amazing event to unfold – yesterday when I spoke to my mother she explained that we were bringing Babycakes cupcakes from the gluten free shop on the lower east side. What an incredible woman she is – not only could she have gone to the local supermarket to pick up any cake or cupcake filled with gluten and sugar, she chose to stick with the health kick and go all the way with the most amazing cupcakes on the planet!

My point here is this: for those of you who don’t feel like your family is supportive of whatever it is that you’re doing – have you tried explaining it to them – and I mean sitting them down and having a nice long talk for a good hour or two? If not, you should probably get on that if you feel that you need the support.

If this just simply isn’t possible then use your friends as your support network. I believe your key to success is to have the backbone to carry you through. It’s too hard to do it alone – so please, don’t try.

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Testimonials

I have been working with Shira for the past year now, and she has been so wonderful through my growth process with yoga and my knowledge of the body. She is very hands on, and her genuine nature is clear with all of her instruction. She truly cares about my process and seeing my strength and flexibility improve. I am thankful to have Shira in my life and look forward to the many more times we work together.— MS, New York